An open letter to WCPSS and NCDPI re: resuming school in July

Dear WCPSS and NCDPI (and all other involved parties),

I'm a parent of two boys in the WCPSS school system in the 2nd and 4th grades. I greatly appreciate everything everyone has done to get remote learning up and going -- that was certainly no easy task. And our teachers are rocking it! (I'd love to say we at home at rocking it, too, but we are doing our best with two full-time working parents plus a preschooler under one roof.)

This has all been hard. And more hard decisions lie ahead of us. No one knows 'the' answer. And the next few weeks, month or even two may make decisions for us.

But today, now, nearing the end of our school year as the state is opening back up -- I am terrified to send my boys back to school in July.

Let me first preface all of this with a few things --

• Myself and all three of my sons are immune compromised with an underlying condition. Will it impact us if we contract COVID? No one knows for sure. Even if we did not have this condition, my concerns below would remain the same.
• One of my sons also has food allergies (also an immune response) and a biologically small airway leading to frequent reactive airway issues. He has nightly nebulizer treatments to try to reduce impact and we keep steroids in the house because of how often we've needed them. I'm worried, because I should be as his mother.
• This same son has an IEP. I won't go into his personal details beyond saying, I understand the benefits of having him in a classroom and his mom not being the authority figure overseeing his learning. He would benefit from (and love) the socialization and his routine and accommodations.
• That said, the classroom (specifically, the presence of his allergens) is also a source of his extreme anxiety (which you can read about in previous posts) that brought us to the position of needing an IEP. For this one, he's in a much better place at home. 

Back to being terrified about our WCPSS modified calendar start date in July --

• How is this even on the radar? I know teachers and the system need to plan but how can anyone plan right now? When we don't know what we are planning for? We can't gather in groups of more than 10 (in Phase 1 of reopening), we don't know when/if we'll get to Phase 2 and a school is most certainly a group of more than 10. 
• I, as a parent, do not feel comfortable sending back my children at any point during this pandemic without a full time nurse and a full time psychologist on staff. The reasons should be obvious.
• I've read about possible recommendations of splitting the classes to better socially distance, and only going to school on alternating days. If this ends up being a solution, how do you explain this to children? Is recess taken away? They can see their friends but not touch them? Can you imagine the stress this adds to teachers and staff? What happens when some kids are told more about the pandemic than others and information is spread? Can you imagine what a child is thinking and feeling during this? How will this impact them emotionally, mentally and educationally? It's hitting us as adults just masking up to venture to the store and watching our every move. But for kids? All day long? That is hard to fathom.
• Will temperatures be taken before entering the building? Do we all realize that having a fever doesn't necessarily mean anything when it comes to this virus?
• What will be the cleaning procedures/requirements and hand washing procedures/requirements? Are we waiting on other departments for that information? Are you stressing that some students (thousands!) start back in early July? The time to prep is now.
• How will it be handled if a classmate, or even a schoolmate or staff member, tests positive for COVID? Will we be informed? Quarantined? Punished if we choose to quarantine? Punished if ongoing cases lead to weeks upon weeks of keeping our child home? 
• How will it be handled if a family member of a classmate or schoolmate or staff member tests positive? Will we be informed? Quarantined? Allowed to quarantine without punishment? Etc. 
• Regarding privacy laws, will we even know if someone's family member is sick or tests positive? 
• Could our child be exposed to an asymptomatic student without our knowledge?
• What about those who are sick and are not able to be tested due to lack of testing, limits on testing or inability to get tested? We will know nothing of them, right? 
• And in the case of our school, which has open classrooms for each grade level, there is another level to consider. To my knowledge, we are the only elementary school in WCPSS set up this way. And, when working on our 504 plan for food allergies, it seemed many at the county level were not aware of this shared space. So, while we may split classes (as an example), our students are still in one large classroom subdivided into three class spaces. There are not four walls and a door around our classes. How does that change approaching safety at this time? Has anyone even thought of this since we are such an edge case? 

The lack of COVID testing, time for results, tracing, proper cleaning requirements and a giant question mark over the short amount of time before we are to enter those school doors are issues of such magnitude. Ones that I'm sure you are thinking of, discussing and many that you have no control over. I don't envy anyone that has to make the call on school starting back. Or to find the answers or best guesses.

There are so many parents that need schools open so they can get back to work and provide for their families. There are also so many with fear and concern about opening schools. And there are a million question marks that I, as a parent, have before I feel comfortable sending my children - my everything - back into a classroom environment. 

We miss school. We miss our school family. We miss our teachers. We miss normal. We best learn the way we have always learned until this time. 

But above all of that, we need to be safe. We need to look at the facts, research, models, reports and genuine concerns surrounding the giant leap of opening up schools. 

For me, as a parent, I'd greatly appreciate as much transparency as you can possibly give us during these next months. And I will assume the same is true for most others. Tell us what you are considering. Tell us where the pain points are. Let us help push for funding, answers, supplies, support. Ask us our thoughts. Send out a giant poll. Talk to us. Open up the communication as much as possible.

Who makes the final call? The NCDPI? WCPSS? Is it related to any county COVID outbreaks? I honestly, admittedly, have no idea and my exhausted brain can't tackle figuring that out at this moment. But transparency, transparency, communication, communication -- crucial.

We value our children's education. But we value their lives and the lives our friends and family more. And right now, and for the foreseeable future, there are too many gaping holes of uncertainty for me to feel an ounce of confidence starting school on schedule in July. 

I feel it's necessary to say again, an enormous thank you to those who have worked so hard to keep my boys learning remotely. What you have all accomplished is phenomenal. You are heroes. 

Now, the time has come for us to think long and hard about what comes next. So we can all prepare, as best we possibly can. We're talking about our kids here. Our future. Our world.

Sincerely,

Kira Kroboth